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EvidenceNOW: Tools and Resources

The Agency for Healthcare and Quality (AHRQ) offers practical, research-based tools and other resources to help a variety of health care origanizations, provider, and others make care safer in all health care settings. AHRQ's evidence-based tools and resources are used by organizations nationwide to improve the quality, safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of health care. Improving health care quality by increasing the capacity of small primary care practices to implement the best clinical evidence is our aim. These tools and resources can be searched by the key drivers and the change strategies of the EvidenceNOW Key Driver Diagram.

Registries can complement paper records or electronic health records (EHRs), which frequently do not have the functions needed for population management. This resource discusses the advantages and disadvantages of creating and using registries.

This workflow shows how medical assistants can provide a check to ensure that evidence-based care is delivered by identifying patients with heart disease who, according to protocol, should have, but have not, been prescribed aspirin.

This resource describes characteristics of high-functioning care teams and shares methods for helping teams improve their effectiveness. It details common challenges faced by primary care teams and how to solve them.

This short tool describes OARS—a set of verbal and non-verbal communication skills that helps clinicians and educators in primary care practices to engage and build rapport with patients and assess their needs.

This care planning worksheet helps primary care practices and their patients together develop a plan of action to manage hypertension, complete with an assessment of readiness to make changes and patient-set goals.

This manual provides a training curriculum that teaches medical assistants (MA) to take on an expanded role in the primary care team by doing more during the rooming process, from reviewing medications, to goal setting, to patient education.

This brief resource outlines 10 steps primary care practices can take to partner with community organizations to better support patients with chronic conditions, increasing individuals’ self-management skills.

This module briefly describes eight steps primary care practices can take to form and work with a Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC), including preparing a PFAC action plan, charter, and budget; selecting improvement projects; and tracking results.